Wow.. What a week

 I feel like this week has just been jammed packed with things. We had zone conference on Monday so all the missionaries from Moldova and Iasi came to Chisinau. We had 4 other sisters stay in our apartment for one night. So on P-day we walked around the city a little and went to piatias. It was also Elder Lasaters last day (my mission dad) so we all went out to eat to celebrate. We usually go out to eat on P-days anyway :)

So the other day we had a problem with our toilet. The button was stuck (cause in europe they have buttons and not handles) and so our toilet kept flushing and wouldn't stop. Me being the daughter of a plumber should know what to do, but everything we tried didn't work! We tried to turn off the water and it didn't turn off. Well I don't really know if it was the water switch but it was a little blue lever thing in the bathroom behind the toilet. It made sense at the time!! It didn't turn it off though. We called the senior couple and asked them what to do because we were out of ideas. We finally just called the apropratar (landloard) and he had a repair man come and fix it for us! We just took that time to do some language study. So that was an adventure we went through on Tuesday. 

I went on my 1st exchange this week. Because our mission is so spread out the sister training leaders come to us and we all stay in the same city. So they came Wednesday night and them left Thursday afternoon. One of the sister training leaders was actually Sora Cases MTC companion and the other one was her host., so that was a fun reunion. My companion for the next few hours was Sora Staplie. Something really cool we were talking about in our companion study was about testimonys, then we went and talked about Ether 12:27, which I love and is my mission scripture if I remember correctly. 

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will i make weak things become strong unto them."

She told me a story about on Sister who didn't think she was as progressed as she could have been in the language considering how long she had been there for. She went to this scripture and wondered when the Lord would make her weakness her strength. Her companion was listening to her and told her that when she talks people don't pay much attention to her beacuse hse can speak the lanuage but she told her companion (the one that couldn't speak as well) that when she talks people pay close attention and actually listen beacuse they need to to be able to understand. So in a sense, her weakness was actually a strength. People payed more attention because she couldn't speak as well. I never thought that maybe sometimes our weaknessess are strength. We just have to see how to take them and maybe use them in a differnet way.

Something really cool that happened this week was Elder Fingerly came to talk to the people the Moldova ( he is a member of the 70) He came Saturday and talked about something that Elder Ballard came and talked to the people of Europe about how to strenghten the church there. People from all over Moldova came, and the missionaries from the different branches. There are only 3 branches I think in Moldova, but they got to come and listen to him speak. It was also great because he speaks English (he is from Germany) but he doesn't speak Romanian or Russian so he had someone translate into Russian. I was happy I could understand though! He also talked to the people about the Pathway program. They tried to get the pathway program in Moldova but it was turned down for the time being. So they wanted someone here to come talk and see that these people need the program. We will see what happens in the future. He was also there on Sunday so we got to hear him talk I think a total of 4 times. It was just cool that we got to listen to a memember of the 70 talk here in Moldova :).

Everything here is great. Our 2 progressing investigators haven't been able to meet with us these last two weeks but hopefully they will be able to this week. If not we have a lot of contacting to do. I understnad now when people say this is a finding mission. Especially Moldova it has only been open for 10 years. It was opened then closed and is open again, so I'm not sure exactly how long in total it has been.

Love you all!! 

Miss you!!!

Love,

Sora Bynum

Funny line of the week:

So I go into the bathroom and notice it has a fruity smell but we don't have spray or anything then I look at the toilet paper and see it has some orange design on it. Out of curioisty I sniff it and it is SCENTED!!!! They have scented toilet paper in this country!!! I come out and I'm like "Sora our toilet paper is scented!! We may not have any baptisms or investigators right not but we have sented toilet paper!!!" It was a good day in our house haha

Christmas fun in Moldova

Well things here in Moldova are going great!! We taught some lessons. We were contacting in the park one day and started talking to this older lady that was interested and she TOOK a copy of the Book of Mormon and then said that she would be in the park the next day and we could come back and talk to her again. So we went back the next day and guess what... SHE WAS THERE!!! that was cool!!! We taught her a little about about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. We were going to go back the next day but we had district meeting and so we got to the park a little late and she wasn't there and we haven't seen her since but we hoping to go back and see her again!

It has gotten pretty cold but it hasn't really snowed which I am happy about!!! We got a Christmas tree the other day from the store!!! It is so cute! It is little and sits on our table. We also got things to put on it as well! I love Christmas!! Makes it feel a little more homey having a tree up in our house. We also got to help put the tree up in the church after sports night. It is quite the tree with so many things on it haha. 

This week was our 1st week teaching English! We have the beinningers class After every class we give them a little spiritual thought and we only had 2 people there and we gave out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon!!! Plus we scheduled a 30/30 (we teach them 30 minutes of English and then 30 minutes of the Gospel) That was exciting for us!!

 

Moldova is great! I love just getting to walk around. Sometimes people don't really want to listen to us when it is cold outside but we still try and keep pressing forward with what we are doing. 

We also had zone conference last night. All the missionaries in Moldova and in Iasi came here to Chinsau. We had 4 sisters staying with us last night. Zone conference was so fun!! I got to see 3 of the people from my MTC district. It was like seeing family after a long time, even though it was really only 2 weeks :P. Actually during our conference the power decided it wanted to go off. We did our scarf and tie exchange in the dark, with the light of our phones. As missionaries we also decided that it would be a good idea to say a prayer for the power to come back on. Without the power the food couldn't be cooked. After the prayer it didn't come on but we countinued with what was planned. We sang hyms. After a while the power did come on and we were able to do everything that we needed to do. Our mission president even performed a number from fiddler on the roof. Costume and ALL!!! He is just the best!!! It was a great experience with great friends and food!!

In our mission when someone goes home we say they are dying. So the "dying" missionaries gave their testimonies it was a cool to hear. Also in our mission my trainer is my "mom" and my 1st district leader is my "dad" My dad is the one that is actually "dying" so it is sad to say bye to him but it is exciting that he gets to go home!!! 

All is well here!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-Sora Bynum

That is NOT the language they taught me in the MTC... No but really...

Buna Familie!!

I FINALLY made it to the field!!! After a long time traveling I made it to Romania!!! Once we got here 3 of us were wisked away to doctors appointmments, which was just them taking out blood pressure and age. I'm not sure what the point of that was. That 1st day was such a long day!!! I'm not sure if I remember all of it. I was SOOOOO jet lagged. I remember us all sitting in the mission home with papers and Sora Hill going over the rules. At one point she made us all stand up and move around. I remember holding my packet sitting down then the next minute I remember it is on the floor somehow. like I said LONG day!!!!! They wouldnt let us go to sleep until it was the right time to go to sleep either. To top it all off the day we got there was the 1st day it decided it wsanted to snow... my favorite....not. That night we went to a Nashes house. Which is the word for Godparent or something. Sora Bird and I went to the sister training leafers house to sleep.

The next morning my MTC district all meet up with President and Sora Hill at the place where the land was dedicated for mission work and we read the dedicatory prayer. It was really cool, FREEZING but a cool experience. After we has to go apply for visas.... SOOOO FUN... It really was just us sitting there while the assistance took care of it for us :) nothing to bad. Wednesday was also the day we all found out where we will be serving and who our trainers were going to be!!! It was like the 1st day of school!! Are you ready to hear where I am??????? 

My companion is Sora Case and I am serving in CHISINAU, MOLDOVA!!!!

So actually I am not even in Romania :P To get here thogh we left Wednesday night and took a sleeper train for 14 hours!!! I kind of felt like I was in harry Potter but not as cool, no one came around asking if I wanted chocolate frogs and it wasn't as clean. So that was an experience!

My companion is great!!! The second day we taught a lesson, WE have actually taught 4 since I've been here and the golden number is only one. I get a headache eveyday though trying to understand what people are saying... 

We also have Russian speaking elders in our mission that only stay in Moldova so I thought that was interesting, On Sunday we went ot church and guess what language all the church things were in(sacrament, sunday school, relief society) RUSSIAN!!! yeah so really they didnt not teach me that lanuage in the MTC... A LOT of people here speak Russian. So sometimes people say things and I'm not sure if I should understand them or not. Sometimes they mix Romanian and Russian... I'm not a big fan. I really just need to master Romanian before Russian gets into this. I love it here just not the two languages it is making it harder than I would like haha. The Lord put me here for a reason though so I just have to find what that reason is and go with it!! 

Love you all!!!

Everything is great!!

Love Sora Bynum

P.S.--sorry for any spelling mistakes my whole letter is underlined so IDK what is wrong and what is right. Plus my keyboard also has all these russian symbols on them :P

P.S.S --Oh I forgot to tell you!!! We celebrated Thanksgiving on friday here. Which was my birthday so we went to the senior couples house and ate with all the missionaries in Moldova and got to watch Fiddle on the Roof. Our mission president is AWESOME!! We also get to watch an animated movie of our choice for Thanksgiving as well. We have yet to watch it but we will decide soon! :)

A letter from the mission president's wife!

Dear Brother and Sister Bynum,

President Hill and I were thrilled to meet Sister Bynum as she arrived in the Bucuresti airport with her MTC group. She seemed very happy finally to be in the mission field after her weeks in the MTC. She was surprisingly awake after her long flights. President Hill had an enjoyable interview with her, where he learned more about this young woman, and I got to spend some time with her too. We were both pleased with her ability and the ease with which she fit in. Thank you very much for sending her to us.

After some time doing preliminaries for her visa, we all had dinner at the mission home with her MTC group, after which, she was whisked away to spend the night with the sister missionaries.

The next morning, in the cold and snow, we met at Cismigiu Park where, in 1990, Elder Russell M. Nelson dedicated the land of Romania for teaching the gospel. Together, we snapped a picture of the group. I'm attaching the picture for you to see.

Then, all the incoming missionaries continued their visa processing, after which they worked hard to stay awake through our orientation meeting and then met their first companions. Sister Bynum is now with her initial companion, Sister Case, in Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova.  Sister Case is an excellent missionary and Sister Bynum will learn "Moldovan" there, which is really just Romanian with an accent. She will probably pick up a little Russian too! Sister Case will give her an excellent start. 

Thanks again for sending us such a wonderful young missionary. We could tell she will be a very good, faithful, hard-working missionary.

With much appreciation,

Sister Hill

Romania/Moldova Mission